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1999
Journal Article
Titel
Optical Bloch oscillations in temperature tuned waveguide arrays
Abstract
We report the observation of optical Bloch oscillations in waveguide arrays. The required linear variation of the propagation constant across the array was obtained by using the thermo-optic effect and can be controlled by temperature. Bloch oscillations manifesting themselves m transverse oscillations of the light beam upon propagation can be attributed to the existence of localized states (Wannier-Stark states) with equidistant eigenvalue spacing (Wannier-Stark ladder). Selfphase modulation by a Kerr nonlinearity will disintegrate the Wannier-Stark ladder as well as the Bloch oscillations.